§ Mr. Proctorasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish in the Official Report the amount of loans and interest given to other countries under the overseas aid programme, repayments of which have been waived in each of the past five years; and if he will list the main beneficiaries.
§ Mr. RaisonThe following table shows the total sums involved. Write-offs are, however, spread over the years 1978 to the end of the century. The cost to the aid programme in each of the last five years has been:
(£ million) Debt cancellation India (local costs) 1978 2 20 1979 20 31 1980 68 33 1981 30 37 1982 22 39 India features separately because, instead of debt cancellation, she receives local costs financing equivalent 29W to the loan repayments due each year. This was decided in 1979 because so much of the global debt relief total was attributable to India and it was necessary to take account of the United Kingdom balance of payments and employment effects of this. Also, our aid programme to
Overseas Aid Programme: Debt Cancellation A. Retrospective Terms Adjustment (RTA) in response to UNCTAD Resolution of 1978 Interest Principal Country Year ODA ECGD ODA ECGD Totals £ £ £ £ £ Afghanistan 1979 — 17,022.49 797,528.60 162,000.00 976,551.09 Bangladesh 1979 — — 15,666,628.34 — 15,666,628.34 Botswana 1979 455,800.56 — 20,226,628.23 — 20,682,428.79 Egypt 1979 3,052,166.49 — 14,746,113.00 — 17,798,279.49 The Gambia 1979 — — 5,219,456.41 — 5,219,456.41 India* 1979 — 30,114,355.63 449,567,596.91 84,481,000.00 564,162,952.54 Indonesia 1979 — — 39,852,610.71 — 39,852,610.71 Kenya 1978 13,303,160.10 85,348.71 55,210,066.43 286,000.00 68,884,575.24 Lesotho 1979 92,691.96 — 310,922.38 — 403,614.34 Malawi 1979 670,632.37 — 30,030,663.26 — 30,701,295.63 Mozambique 1983 — — 22,500,000.00 — 22,500,000.00 Nepal 1979 — — 1,967,979.70 — 1,967,979.70 Pakistan 1979 — 3,373,031.85 64,021,029.99 9,026,657.04 76,420,718.88 Sierra Leone 1979 1,292,418.56 547,260.93 6,661,878.78 1,907,374.25 10,408,932.52 Sri Lanka 1979 — — 25,209,688.47 — 25,209,688.47 Sudan 1979 — 359,540.76 7,914,369.94 1,640,000.00 9,913,910.70 Tanzania 1979 829,131.93 27,441.23 2,328,674.43 210,000.00 3,395,247.59 Uganda 1981 1,665,473.76 416,787.51 13,145,833.93 1,222,000.00 16,450,095.20 Western Samoa 1979 — — 199,391.33 — 199,391.33 Total 21,361,475.73 34,940,789.13 775,577,060.84 98,935,031.29 930,814,356.97
B. Other exceptional debt relief Bangaldesh 1979 — 7,653,084 7,311,172 16,046,023 31,010,279 Uganda 1981 1,495,706 275,770 3,495,949 372,000 5,639,426 Zimbabwe† 1980 5,496,660 1,383,859 14,305,952 1,717,337 22,903,808 Total 6,992,366 9,312,713 25,113,073 18,135,360 59,553,513 Grand Total 28,353,842 44,253,502 800,690,134 117,070,391 990,367,870 Notes:
*For India an equivalent amount of local costs aid was offered instead of normal RTA.
†Includes £13,408,859 which was not charged to the Aid Programme.